In the cold, dark days of winter, many dream of summer, so it's no surprise January is the year's biggest holiday-booking month. However don't let travel lust destroy your wallet. Here are my top 10 tips to do what you want for less, though you can find far more in our 50+ travel tricks...

1.

Slash flight costs using the RIGHT comparison. For scheduled flights, don't wait till the last min as flight costs soar. See Cheap Flights, in brief...

- Find the perfect time to book: Use the Flight Insight tab on comparison site Momondo*, eg, on average 59 days ahead is the perfect time to book but it varies by destination, so worth a check.

2.

Flight booking - the clever stuff to cut costs. Once you've found the cheapest price via a comparison, if you want to push harder, let's get clever.

- Book the wrong date trick. Easyjet's Flexifares let you switch dates by a few weeks without paying more. So bag cheap term-time flights, then swap for your chosen school holiday dates. One MoneySaver saved £700 on her family's break. Pros & cons (and there are some) in Easyjet Flexifare Trick.

- The codeshare trick. Sometimes two or more airlines sell the same flights and booking via one partner is cheaper, eg, a United flight from B'ham to New York can be cheaper via Lufthansa, see Codeshare Savings Trick.

Cut the price for your hotel room (incl 15% off codes). Forget the star system. There's no world standard and it's often about facilities, not quality. To find the hotel you want to stay at read reviews on TripAdvisor* but always ignore the best and worst 10%. To cut the price see our Cheap Hotels guide, key tips...

A) Check comparison sites: Both Trivago* and TravelSup* allow you to see who's selling your hotel room for less.

Tricks to uncover 5-star hotels at 3-star prices. If you've time to play and want the really big discounts, then there are two naughty (but legal) routes.

- Uncover secret hotels. Lastminute.com sells secret hotels at big discounts, where you know the star rating, description and rough location, but aren't told the name till you've paid. Yet we've a method to uncover them before you book, see Uncover secret hotels + 15% off code. Hotwire does similar.

Eg, we uncovered a 5-star Edinburgh hotel on sale for £89/nt with code. It was the Sheraton Grand - booking direct it's £185/nt.
- HUGE discounts with the Priceline bidding loophole. Priceline is a huge US booking site (it works for some European cities too). The Priceline Loophole trick is fiddly, (too complex to explain here), but devastatingly lucrative as forumite 5*dealhunter found: "Got the 5* Renaissance Barcelona Hotel for £59 a night for 3 nights instead of £310 - a saving of 81%."

5.

Posh villas often undercut posh hotels. If you're going as a family or with friends, our Cheap Villas guide shows you can massively undercut similar quality hotels. Eg, a 4-bed Algarve villa is £400/wk compared to £800 in a similar quality hotel. Nick tweeted us about eight staying in Majorca: "Free car and pool included. Super posh. Saved £1,200 for the party. Wonderful :-)."

Alternatively, consider renting rooms in homes - eg, £35/nt for a room in Barcelona, compared to £80/nt for a similar hotel. Be safe though.

6.

Package holidays can undercut DIY web bookings... especially for 7, 10 or 14 days in a traditional resort like Majorca, Mykonos or Malia (and some that don't start with an M) as shown in Cheap Package Holidays. In brief...
When to book? Massive savings are possible in the late market, where deals are done within eight weeks of travel, yet of course there's restricted choice & you may need to be flexible. So if you need special facilities (eg, for families) you need to book now and try to cut prices down.
How to cut prices? Remember tour operators make holidays, travel agents sell them. So one operator's holiday may be on sale at many travel agents - the aim is to find who'll sell it cheapest.

Best euro rate for 5 years - buy now? For the last month or so, the pound's at its strongest against the euro since 2009, with the spot rate over €1.28 and the top travel money rate €1.27. So many are asking "is now the time to buy for summer"?

I'm afraid I don't know. Nor does anyone else. Currencies move - it could get better or worse. Even professional currency speculators don't always get it right. However, the euro right now is decent, so if you decide it's good enough, you could lock in now for safety and not worry if it gets even better.

Bag the perfect rate EVERY time you go away. My preference isn't to play the market, just to get the best rate whenever I go. The easy way is to pocket a bureau-busting, specialist travel credit card giving near-perfect rates on spending every time in every country, unlike most cards they don't add a 'load' - instead you get the same great rate the bank does.
- Top pick card (no annual fee): Halifax Clarity* wins, due to lowest ATM fees. Ensure you repay it IN FULL though to minimise the 12.9% rep APR. There are easier-to-get cards, so use our free Overseas Card Eligibility Calculator to show which of the specialist cards you're most likely to be accepted for.

8.

You don't only get package holiday protection with package holidays. Package holidays have long been protected under the ATOL scheme, so if something goes wrong you get your money back (or help coming home).

Yet book a flight plus separate hotel or car hire together (or within 24 hours) from the same travel (not airline) website, and since 2012 you've also got ATOL protection, just like with a package.

So check if it's not much more expensive compared to booking the cheapest flight & hotel separately. Also bear in mind Expedia*, Travelocity, Ebookers* & Lastminute.com* often give extra discounts for flights and hotels booked together.

9.

Book car hire early to save big bucks. If you're hiring abroad, generally early booking is far cheaper. What can be £9/day months ahead can be £34/day just before you go and far more when there, adding £100s overall.

- Find cheapest via comparison sites: Use Kayak*, Carrentals* & TravelSup*.
- Check stealth fuel charges. Hire for 3+ days and some make you pay for a full tank & return it empty - that can be £100 extra if you don't drive far. Both AutoEurope* & TravelSup* let you filter by fuel policy.- Get cheap excess insurance before you go. The hire firm will want you to get up to £20/day excess cover on top of the included insurance. Instead, get Cheap Excess Insurance for as little as £2 before you go.

10.

Buy travel insurance as soon as you book (cheapest £6). If you book but don't have travel insurance, then if you get ill or need to cancel you won't be covered, so buy it straight away. Yet often holiday firms' own insurance is a massive rip-off, and our Cheap Travel Insurance guide shows how to undercut their prices.

- Cheapest annual policies (under-65s): If you'll go away 2+ times a year (incl weekends), it's usually cheaper to get an annual policy, eg, a year's Europe cover for a 25-yr-old costs just £13, a couple worldwide aged 45 costs £46.

- Check your FREE EHIC is valid: These give you treatment at state-run EU hospitals at the same cost as a local. Yet many don't realise they have an end date. Check yours now and renew FOR FREE (never pay). Full help in our Free EHIC guide.

PS. New. The Martin Lewis Money Roadshow, ITV1, Fri 8pm. This week it's all about taking on credit card debts, slashing the cost, boosting your credit score, and even how to get a 0% loan.

E.on's just shaved its standard gas tariff (not elec, not fixed) down by 3.5%, cutting a typical bill by £24/yr. Yet compared to the 20%-30% drop in wholesale prices and the 10% cut in cheap switchers' deals over the last year, it's trivial. Those on it are typically still paying £200+/year more even than E.on's own cheapest deals. So do a top fix comparison asap.

New. Cheapest energy fix. As well as cutting its standard deal, E.on's entered the cheap fix price war, with a new 12-month fixed-rate deal at £923/yr (if you get the £10/yr dual fuel paperless billing discount) for someone with typical usage. This makes it the current market's cheapest.

How to get it? Never just switch, use our Cheap Energy Club top fixes comparison to see if and how much you'll save with your own bespoke price and comparison of other tariffs.
Do it this way and you'll also get £30 (£15/fuel) cashback which you won't get if you go direct.

1) If you're on a key or card meter you can still compare, switch & save. See Cheap Prepayment Meters.
2) To get the lowest price pay by monthly direct debit, then ensure you give regular meter readings.
3) We normally favour 'no exit fees'. Yet if, as now, savings from the cheapest outweigh this, it's a small issue.

I've just switched, should I cancel? Assuming you compared and got a cheap deal then why would you? The new cheapest's a few quid a year lower, but delaying means you'll get fewer high-use winter days at that rate, which likely balances it out.

Martin's predictions on prices: The rest of the big six energy firms may follow E.on's lead and dribble standard prices lower, but that still leaves them over 20% more expensive than the cheapest deals. Even with the huge drop in wholesale prices, big cuts are unlikely because big firms 'buy ahead' so have less flexibility, and they’re scared of a Labour price freeze if it wins on 7 May, which would lock them in even if wholesale prices bounce back.

I do expect more and slightly cheaper fixes for switchers to keep launching. Yet holding out is a risk, as it can take 3-6 weeks to move over and the gain from switching and saving sooner during high-use winter months will likely outweigh any slight reductions. Of course as with all crystal ball predictions this is just a guess, not a fact.

If you're on a standard line rent & broadband package, before calls you're paying £360/yr for BT, £410/yr for Virgin, and similar prices for other big providers. We list the top deals in our Cheap Broadband guide, but right now as firms know lots of people are working through their finances, they're not as cheap as a few months ago. Our current top pick...

- Line rent: Usually £16.70/mth, it's reduced to £8.35/mth for six months. After that we suggest you save £20 by selecting to pay £180.36 upfront for the year, rather than the £16.70/per month (it can up this, but if it does you've a right to break the contract).- Unlimited b'band (avail to 97% of the UK): Pay nowt for 12mths, then £3.50/mth for six. So £21 over the 18mths. - You're sent a £90 Love2Shop voucher within 28 days. Once the broadband's live, the voucher will be posted to you automatically within 28 days. Love2Shop can be used at Argos, Boots, Debenhams, M&S, etc. - Call costs: None included (though you can pay for 'boosts' which add some) - costs are a touch more than BT's standard. If you rack up more than £50 in unbilled call charges it'll stop you making calls until this is reduced.- Need line installation? If you don't have a line or only have a cable one (or in a few cases other lines), installation is free but you WON'T get the voucher. It'll tell you before you commit. - Compulsory 'free' wi-fi router. Yet you pay a one-off £6.75 to cover p&p.
- Feedback's mixed. Better than it used to be. In our June survey 51% said TalkTalk is good, 27% OK, 22% poor.

Cost analysis - how good is it? This is a frustratingly complex tariff, with lots of temporary price reductions, yet overall it's still hot. Add up line rent (with a year paid upfront), b'band & router and it's £258.21 for 18mths (pay line rent monthly and it's £278.25). PLUS you get the £90 Love2Shop voucher.

If you'd spend that at one of those shops anyway, factor it in and it's effectively £168.21 for 18mths, equiv to just £9.35/mth (paid monthly £188.25 equiv to £10.46/mth) - cheaper than many standard line rent only prices.

Before we talk rates, a warning... just because borrowing's cheap, it doesn't mean you should do it. Yet for needed, planned spends, eg, a new car or kitchen, where you've budgeted and repayments are affordable, a cheaper APR saves.

Cheapest £2,500 - £4,999: Hitachi is the easy winner of standard loans at 8% rep APR for £2,500 - £2,999 (next cheapest is 14.9%) and 7.8% rep APR for £3,000 - £4,999 if you borrow for 2-5 years. Peer-to-peer lenders Zopa* and Ratesetter* may be cheaper (as low as 5.7% rep APR for £3k, but rates are personalised, so not always), plus they also have the advantage of flexibility, letting you overpay or clear early without penalty. See Peer-to-peer loans.

What does 'representative APR' mean? Sadly only 51% of those accepted must get that rate - the rest could pay more.

Get a 0% credit card loan. For smaller amounts, (as it's credit limit dependent), money transfers undercut loans. Here you get a new specialist card that pays cash into your bank account, like a loan, then you owe it instead.

Accepted new MBNA* (eligibility calc) cardholders can get 2yrs 0% for just a 1.94% one-off fee (min £3), or Fluid* (eligibility calc) gives a longer 29mths 0% but a bigger 4% fee (min £3). Ensure you never miss a repayment and clear it by the end of the 0% or they jump to 22.9% rep APR. FULL help on this complex issue in our Money Transfers guide.

Success of the week: (Send us yours on this or any topic)"My BA flight was cancelled in the summer, it offered a £100 e-voucher - not good enough. Pursued BA and eventually I got £835 compensation" - John Drake via twitter
- Don't accept the first offer, use our Flight DELAY or CANCELLATION compensation guide and free templates.

At three service stations in the Midlands prices have dipped to 99.7p/litre - the first time they've been under £1 in almost six years. Yet it's not just about the cheapest rates. Our Cheap Petrol guide takes you through how to save in 5 key steps:

Speedily find your cheapest forecourt. Prices vary widely, so use a cheap forecourt finder tool to track down your local cheapest for unleaded, diesel, LPG and more. Eg, in Cardiff CF10 the cheapest is £1.05/L, the most expensive £1.16/L, and in London's NW5 the range is a huge £1.08/L to £1.40/L. These savings can really add up.

Save up to 30% with efficient (not slower) driving tips. It's all explained in How To Drive More Efficiently, but top tips include changing up a gear earlier to keep revs down, more gentle acceleration and good road positioning so you can slow naturally rather than screech to a halt.

Make your car more efficient. Reduce weight and drag and the car uses less fuel. So check your tyre pressure (just that makes a big difference), plus clear out your boot & take unused roofracks off. Is your car efficient

3% back on petrol/diesel spending. The Santander 123* (eligibility calc) credit card pays 3% cashback on fuel & train fare spending (max £9/mth back), 2% in department stores & 1% supermarkets. It has a £24 annual fee, so is best for big drivers or Santander 123 bank account customers, who get the 1st year's fee refunded. Yet only get if you'll repay IN FULL each month to avoid the 12.7% interest (16.5% rep APR incl fee). Full help: Petrol Credit Cards.

Tesco shopper? Save up to 20p/litre. Present your Clubcard and for each £50 spent in stores or on groceries online per calendar month, Clubcard Fuel Save gets you 2p/litre off. Up to 10 can be combined in one go to get 20p/L off at Tesco forecourts, which are usually relatively competitive. Full help: Top Supermarket Petrol Coupons.

Discussion of the week

A lot of people take holidays with friends, partners or family members but would you go it alone if your sense of adventure wasn't matched by those around you? Our forumites discuss taking the plunge and travelling alone in the Solo holidaying discussion. Why not share your tips and tricks on taking a trip in a party of one?

Cheap travel money

This week's poll: What have you already bought for next Christmas?

No, this isn’t a leftover from last year, we’re talking Christmas 2015. While some may groan in horror at the thought, serious MoneySavers have already been out there piling January sales goods into the back cupboard ready for next Christmas. Where do you stand?

Poll results

Should restaurant menus tell you the calories?
It's not quite a gender divide, but there's definitely a split between men and women when it comes to counting calories. When asked if info should be listed for every dish, 49% of ladies said yes, but only 35% of men felt the same. In fact, 33% of blokes were opposed to calorie info on the grounds it spoiled their fun, while just 24% of women shared this view. The overall picture then was:

- 69% of women said yes to calorie info being available in some form
- Just 49% of men said yes to calorie info being available in some form

Question of the week

Q: My energy company has increased my direct debit from £42 per month to £200. I am guessing it's because my usage has been miscalculated. Is there anything I can do about it? Carol, by email.

MSE Rebecca's A: What did the company say when you asked it why the price was changing? If you've not called it yet, do it now - lots of people are nervous about doing this but picking up the phone and querying the rise is the first thing you need to do.

The company needs to clearly explain and justify why it's changing the price. Given the scale of the hike, there's probably been an error in how the direct debit has been calculated as it amounts to a £1,900 a year hike.

If this is the case, you can ask for the direct debit to be lowered and the rules say it has to play ball. If after eight weeks of complaining it fails to do so, you can escalate your gripe to the Energy Ombudsman. See our Fight unfair energy direct debits guide.

The energy firm may say it's making up for the fact it has undercharged you in the past by raising your direct debit now. If this is the case and you're now in debt to it, it'll need to look at your financial situation when working out your new direct debit and it can't charge you more than you can afford.

Paying by monthly direct debit is usually cheaper but you need to send in regular meter readings to make sure you're paying the correct amount.

That's it for this week, but before we go, how good are you at answering simple maths questions while under pressure? Take this (wholly unscientific) quiz and find out.

We hope you save some money,

Martin & the MSE team

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We think it's important you understand the strengths and limitations of the site. We're a journalistic website and aim to provide the best MoneySaving guides, tips, tools and techniques, but can't guarantee to be perfect, so do note you use the information at your own risk and we can't accept liability if things go wrong.

This info does not constitute financial advice, always do your own research on top to ensure it's right for your specific circumstances and remember we focus on rates not service.

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We don't as a general policy investigate the solvency of companies mentioned (how likely they are to go bust), but there is a risk any company can struggle and it's rarely made public until it's too late (see the Section 75 guide for protection tips).

We often link to other websites, but we can't be responsible for their content.

Always remember anyone can post on the MSE forums, so it can be very different from our opinion.

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